Thursday, 25 February 2016

How
to define the tormented character of wartime France? Jonathan
Lynn, best known for co-writing goverment sitcom Yes Minister,
uses two real life French soldier politicians, judged differently by history, to
draw together many elements in his ambitious play The Patriotic Traitor.

The
play begins as Pétain, a womanising, tough Celt, whose geniality hidesa streak of ruthless expediency, in Conti's incarnation,
backed by a map of France and surrounding countries, awaits the verdict of his
trial and it is seemingly structured as a series of his flashbacks told to a
priest.

The
apprentice simplicities of the first act fuse into a far more complex second
act. As
Pétain's viewpoint retreats, De Gaulle's sense of his destiny and his literary
image of himself washes over the play.

Finally a compliant Pétain, whose
life De Gaulle saves in a manner modelled on Napoleon's exile, even accepts his
former subordinate giving him the words to describe his punishment.

The play, in TLT's humble opinion, belongs to De Gaulle, allowing Fox to
excel, even when talking, as became De Gaulle's wont, in the third person. And it is De
Gaulle's particular sensibility, writerly imagination and politics which grow to dominate the play.

TLT
and her petite bagnole were struck by echos of several parallel European histories and also some graceful tableaux in the course
of the action. As if an artist had recorded events with every nuance in an upmarket populist political bande-dessinée before the
age of the flash bulb press photographer.

Charting
the lives of the two men and their relationship to France, Lynn chooses a dramatically
difficult literary and historical path shaded with pastiche. For, despite
the seriousness of the subject, there's a skein of humour strained across the
continuum of events.

At the same time, Lynn could have pacedhis own work more effectively to tap more fully the
dramatic potential of the intricate structure and ritualistic power exchange.

A slow burner, it eventually rewards an
attentive audience in the second act, having woven its coolly intricate web with gunpowder flashes of
emotion. But,
especially in the first act, this feels like a radio play with Andrea J Cox's sound effects or a piece preparing
for a TV drama series or movie, so it's an amber light from TLT.

PS As left wing French intellectuals manqué with a taste forthe existential;), it tickled TLT and her mechanical filly that this production's De Gaulle, five years before his own birth, should watch out for his own uncle - the would-be assassin of the French president in 1973 movie The Day Of The Jackal ... ;)

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Underneath
the arches this time - a trip to the Union Theatre for a lesser known Sondheim
musical, Road Show, directed by Phil Willmott, accompanied by a three-piece band
led by musical director Richard Baker on piano with accompanying drummer and
violinist.

With
no less than three former incarnations as Wise Guys, Gold and Bounce, it's based
on the true story of American Addison Mizner
and his brother Wilson,
entrepreneurs or crooks, dependent on your point of view, in the first half of
the 20th century.

It's
a "can't live with him, can't live without him" tale with the indissoluble
ties and irreparable rifts of the two men, artist and conman, at the centre of
the story, used as a reflection of American aspiration.

Urged
on by their dying politician father, "It's In Your Hands" and their
ambitious mother, the two men take to the road to make their fortunes.
Suffering the vicissitudes of won and lost riches as gold prospectors, in gambling
dens and various ill-fated business ventures, they finally make their mark with
over hyped Florida real estate - before
the property bubble bursts.

TLT
and sidekick are "we know what we like" audience members rather than
musical theatre experts. And drawing on their previous theatregoing, this
musical struck them as having some of the same assets and liabilities as Jerry
Herman's Mack and Mabel. The same
awkward uneasy see-saw between two protagonists with no consistent focus. A dark
true tale but at the same time a shoo-in
archetypal story in conflict, rather than integrated, with the accurate history.

Nevertheless
there's a lot to like in the Union production. Howard Jenkins takes on the role
of architect Addison, the fall guy compared to the opportunist rogue Wilson,
played with relish by André Refig,variously a gambler, prize fight promoter,
playwright and Hollywood screenwriter.

Jenkins
as Addison, who finally finds success as an architect of kitsch Spanish-style mansions for the wealthy, leads the audience through the story, even if he is more youthfully slimline than at
least one line of the lyrics suggests. Steve
Watts is suitably authoritative both as the older Addison and the Mizner
brothers' father. Meanwhile Cathryn Sherman makes the most of the role of spikey
Mama Mizner and Joshua LeClair brings an emotional power to the role of love
interest Hollis.

The
problems, like Mack and Mabel, seem to be mostly with the book. Maybe the key
lies with the original conception. According to internet sources,
Sondheim first came across the story of the Mizners in the 1950s in the New
Yorker magazine, but foundthe rights to
their biography already snapped up by Broadway producer David Merrick. Merrick
had Irving Berlin, who had known Addison, on board to write the songs when it
was mooted as a possible vehicle for comedian Bob Hope.

It
came to naught and Sondheim stepped in again in the 1990s intending to use the template of the popular wisecracking "Road" movies with Hope and
crooner Bing Crosby.
A kind of double act Rake's Progress,
scenes from lives and eras: the gold rush, to India and then Hawaii, Guatamala,
New York and finally Boca Raton, Florida.

Ifthe Road movie framework had remained as more of an ironic commentary, maybe it would
have given Road Show a steelier structure and consistency of tone rather
than leaving the bare bones linear story of the two men. As it is, designer Nik
Corrall introduces a tarnished gilt mirror or picture frame in the background on the
ragged Union stage, which along with suitcases and a typewriter, gives a desolate riches to rags "Citizen Kane" feel
to the production.

Overall,
TLT and her own road companion enjoyed the show, even if at times the
choreography felt a little over egged and the story sometimes like a house with
ad hoc extensions.

But
it was a pleasure to hear unmiked singing in the intimate venue and
additionally individual cameos such as Damian Robinson's boxer ensured an engrossing
105 minutes without interval. So it's an amber light for an uneven but enjoyable show.

Sunday, 21 February 2016

First
of all, there may be those readers who believe wrongly TLT is an online sock
puppet. And a sock puppet with its own sock puppet in the shape of her little equally
opinionated limo.

Let
us clear this up once and for all. We enjoyed this show, Hand To God, though we are definitely
not sock puppets. We are a human being and a motorised vehicle with a birth
certificate and a current MOT.

And
we are not connected in any way shape or form with: Hand To God anti-hero Tyrone,
a sock puppet masterfully manipulated by Harry Melling as troubled teen Jason; sock puppets in general; writer cum bartender Robert Askins; director Moritz Von
Stuelpnagel or designer Beowulf Boritt.

But
we did wonder whether the spectacularly-named Moritz Von Stuelpnagel or Beowulf
Boritt really existed from birth, especially when widow Margery (Janie Dee) rips out pages
of patriarchal family trees from the bible with relish.

Back to the Vaudeville. Pastor Greg (Neil Pearson) asks Margery to put
on a performance to showcase the work of the sock puppet ministry (oh ye of little faith, these actually exist)
attended by her introvert son Jason, local juvenile delinquent Timmy (Kevin Mains) and girl-next-door
Jessica (Jemima Rooper) on whom Jason has a crush. But Jason also has his life taken over by
his xxhis own handxx demonic sock puppet, Tyrone ...

TLT
and jalopy did wonder if Tyrone had appeared as a cartoon character on the
small screen in a cartoon sitcom, it would have been seen as just another of
the South Park/Family Guy genre, even with, or perhaps because of, the puppet-on-puppet sex
(did we mention that?!). But theatre is
its own powerful visceral medium with a different impact on its audience. And Jessica's
reaction to Jason's devilish appendage on stage is - strangely innocent and
resourceful - and very funny.

Some
of
the story threads do feel as stitched together as a character's torn
off ear (maybe we're all turning into patched-up puppets?!!!) and
of dubious taste, yet this is the gospel according to Tyrone, not Saint
Jason,
Timothy, Gregory or Margery.

Give yourself up to the truly mesmerizing performance of Melling as Jason and
sock puppet Tyrone without too much
detailed analysis and you'll understand why it's proved an almost cathartic
experience for audiences.

Oh,
and Beowulf Boritt's revolving sets, complete with a little limo no
less (what's not to like?!), also keep this fable fast and frantic with
the puppets designed by Marte Johanne Ekhougen in this hellishly funny
sermon.

TLT
and her convertible were reminded of this take on Jewish identity after
motoring along to the Theatre Royal Haymarket for Joshua Harmon's dark comedy
Bad Jews which has already completed a couple of successful runs in Bath and
London before going on tour and returning to the capital.

The
self-conscious twenty something grandchildren of a Holocaust survivor cram into
a New York studio apartment overlooking the Hudson River following his funeral.

Long-held
resentments erupt in an almighty battle between two of the cousins for
possession of the gold "Chai" (meaning "life") pendant
belonging to their "Poppy" which he had kept hidden while in a Second
World War concentration camp, apparently under his tongue.

Bad
Jews tackles troublesome matters within the framework of a farce. While
religion has clearly shaped their lives, the economic and gender divide proves
just as important a catalyst for the Titanic struggle between born-again Jew
Daphna (Ailsa Joy), a clever Vassar student, and her more secular wealthier
cousins, Liam (Ilan Goodman), her main adversary with blonde non Jewish
girlfriend Melody (Antonia Kinlay) in tow, and Jonah "I don't want
to get involved" Haber (Jos Slovick).

The
play has a schematic feel with some obvious comedy set-ups. But it's a speedy
and engaging no-interval 100 minutes with plenty of scorching below-the-belt
dialogue and a subtle historical subtext for a post credit crunch generation
cut adrift in modern globalized America and the world.

Director
Michael Longhurst keeps the action moving in the apartment and the corridor in
an evocative set designed by Richard Kent and manages the broadstroke comedy
without sacrificing the underlying seriousness and knotty issues.

If
the play itself is sometimes as self-conscious as the generation it portrays,
there are scattergun visceral moments of insight, especially when Daphna is
obviously fighting as much as a woman told to shut up as for her side of the
family and her place in the world.

An
amber/green
light for a fast-moving, if sometimes flawed, thought-provoking piece.

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

As
if obeying a celestial director with cloud-seeeding powers, the heavens opened
as TLT drove up in oilskins and galoshes to the Arcola Theatre for A Steady
Rain. This is the Chicago-based 2007 two-hander that proved the breakthrough
work for Wisconsin writer and Windy City resident Keith Huff who went on to pen TV's Mad
Men and House of Cards.

The
piece charts the lives of two Chicago cops, friends since Catholic school and
church, working the same beat as partners in the police force. So far, so
stereotypical. But this is no standard police procedural but a sly
sleight-of-hand stage play dependent on the testimonies of the protagonists and
off stage action.

Gradually,
through shifting monologues, interspersed with interaction between the two, we
learn Denny, a family man and moral crusader with shades of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver,
nevertheless finagles protection money from prostitutes and cheats on his
wife.

Meanwhile
Joey lives alone taking solace in the bottle, nurturing a hidden passion for
Denny's wife. The two are linked by their chosen career, immersion in the
Chicago underworld and their grievances at lack of promotion. Yet they are
lives also shaped and buffetted by politics, media headlines, real estate,
drugs, murder and mayhem, movies and TV, the two men coming from a generation
shaped and united by televison, its ideals and its exposés..

This
production premiered at the East Riding Theatre in Yorkshire directed by
Anthony Pearson with Vincent Regan reprising here the role of Denny Lombardo
and David Schaal as Joey Doyle.

The
stage area is a black box designed by Ed Ullyart encased in the round by banks
of audience seats on three sides looking down on a platform, slightly raised
from the floor, sloping to street drains. On the back wall projections evoke
the wider world but also a more claustrophobic sense of looking through a letterbox.

A
Steady Rain works as a straight forward anti hero plot tracing the
disintegration of the partnership, a marriage, a man's sanity, painting a
portrait of life on the Chicago streets. But it's far more intricate than
that with its interactions between TV drama, crime that hits the headlines and
compromised real lives.

The
play grips with its two performances by Regan and Schaal ratcheting up the
tension, although it's a tricky balance to maintain with the story filtered
through the characters' own words rather than shown. The stuff of TV melodrama
and poetically biblical archetypes seep through like water from overflowing
drains.

For
the most part, director Anthony Pearson manages to keep the equilibrium of the
play.

As
the characters move into extremes, a fatal mistake leads to a gruesome
cannibalistic murder of a Vietnamese child inspired by the Jeffrey Dahmer murders and eventually
breaks brotherly bonds forcing a tragic private and public repositioning.

By
the final scenes we are drawn into the psychological world of the relentless
beating rain coming into earshot (sound uncredited in the programme). At
times, the play almost becomes a little heavy handed, but the dark subject
matter of A Steady Rain has a redeeming wit and a political nous for which we
award our coveted green light.

About Me

Mere colour-coded opinions here & on Twitter @TLTreviews
Follow Theatregoer's Highway Code - red for 'stay at home'; amber for 'may cater for some tastes'; and green for 'go! go! go!'; Usually all reviews are posted the day after our theatre trip! Alongside TLT and her little hatchback, aka Alice Josephs, journalists Francis Beckett http://www.francisbeckett.co.uk/, Peter Barker and Tim Gopsill also take the steering wheel at times as esteemed guest reviewers! If you feel the need to make me take my eyes off the blog while I'm driving, email me on trafficlightblog@yahoo.co.uk ...